Life at Fonthill: Letters of William Beckford

by William Beckford, Boyd Alexander (Editor)

Ostracized by society for his eccentricity and homosexual relationships, William Beckford was known as the "Fool of Fonthill." Full of scandal at the start of the 19th century, this is an account of his life between 1807 and 1822.

Genres: Biography, History

315 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2005

About the author

William Thomas Beckford was an English novelist, a profligate and consummately knowledgeable art collector and patron of works of decorative art, a critic, travel writer and sometime politician, reputed at one stage in his life to be the richest commoner in England. His parents were William Beckford and Maria Hamilton, daughter of the Hon. George Hamilton. He was Member of Parliament for Wells from 1784 to 1790, for Hindon from 1790 to 1795 and 1806 to 1820.

He is remembered as the author of the Gothic novel Vathek (1786), the builder of the remarkable lost Fonthill Abbey and Lansdown Tower ("Beckford's Tower"), Bath, and especially for his art collection.